Air Mystery

Hooray!!! We bought the plane tickets to Barcelona yesterday. They are one way! That is SO exciting!

This was the climax of months of researching the right time to buy international tickets (three months before departure) the right day of the week (Saturday) and just general window shopping to discover what’s a good price and what’s a bad one.

Okay, this is weird: the one-way fare from Portland, Oregon to Barcelona, Spain ranges from $720 to nearly $4535. Why, one wonders, is one coach seat worth more than six times another? The number of stops, trip duration… none of it provides any clues. Also, one gets different prices on different days, and certainly on different search sites. (I like Vayama, OneTravel, and CheapoAir.) Here are the extremes of just one search:

So I pondered the cheapest trip. The bulk of the trip, from Seattle to Frankfurt, is aboard Condor Flugdienst, a German charter airline that has a mere 25% approval rating on Trip Advisor. The reviews, which tend to be mostly written by crabby people anyway, tell of small seats, bad food, delays, and the usual airline whining. It was all stuff that could happen on any airline, and, I mean, the plane gets there, right? Maybe it’s cheap because Condor does not spend zillions on advertising.

I looked longingly at the Lufthansa (79% approval rating) one-stop via Newark, for a mere $165 more. Still, $165 per person can buy tons of tapas in Spain. Then I looked longingly at Tom to see if he wanted to spend the extra money on Lufthansa. “Heck, no! Live dangerously!” he crowed.

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10 thoughts on “Air Mystery”

Hi Louise and Tom, I love it! We must be kindred spirits because the transportation choice often boils down to “how many tapas” the saved money will buy. We’ve been on a similar adventure the past several years, so we’re really excited and happy for you. Can’t wait to follow on your journeys. Wishing you all the best and safe travels, Terri & James

Hi, Terri and James! What a joy to look at your excellent blog! Great wit, great photos, great spirit of adventure. We are honored to be joining the ranks of unstoppable nomads. Will we cross paths anywhere? Louise and Tom

It’s time for me to go on the record, I guess. I’m totally against you guys leaving the country. Even if we only get together a few times a year, fewer now since Deb and I moved over the mountains, I’m gonna miss you more than you think.

Hi Louise and Tom,
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Louise, you’re spot on about these screwy airfares. We ran into the same thing on our RTW many times. In fact, we got a free trip to Hawaii as a result of playing the system. And as you know, anything is blog fodder, so we wrote a post on it. When you cross the Pacific, this might help:http://gallivance.net/2012/02/13/a-free-trip-to-hawaii/